Democratic-representative government is now perceived by many as the right to elect their own dictators. Democracy, a model for good governance has been redefined by many African countries in a way that suits them. However, the most important development of the past century has been the spread of democracy.
For over two decades now, President Paul Biya has dominated the political landscape of Cameroon since he came into the scene in 1982. As then prime minister, he was appointed president of the one-party state following a startling resignation of President Ahmadou Ahidjo. In January 1984, president Biya won his first full term election as president and was re-elected unopposed in 1988 with more than 90 percent of the votes.
Despite Biya’s re-election, frustration with the government has become intense as economic crisis and repression worsened. As the Cold War ended and a wave of democratization began to sweep across Africa and other parts of the world, Biya grudgingly allowed the formation of political parties in 1990, after several efforts by his government to hinder the movement for multiparty politics in Cameroon.
In Uganda, President Yoweri Museveni celebrated his twenty years in power in January 2006. Yoweri fought his way to power in 1986 where he said he needed five years to clean up Uganda. Ten years later, he made exactly the same promise to his country men. In 2005, he changed the 1995 constitution that limits the presidency to two five years term in order to enable his re-election.
The government of President Yoweri Museveni has been marked with heavy human rights abuses. When his main rivaled Kizza Besigye who returned from exile to challenge his position, he was arrested for rape, treason and other charges and later adopted at gunpoint by mufti gunmen suspected to be armed by Museveni in the courtroom.
A transformed dictator, who came into power through the barrel of gun, legitimized himself through tolerance and democratic institutions. In an interview with Christiana Amarpour on CNN in August, he said, he was not done with the cleaning up work. One would only imagine, how many years does he need more to get the job done?
By the same token, the same situation is attainable in Sudan, Zimbabwe, Rwanda and other democratic states whose sole interest is to safeguard their position and offer little or nothing to its citizens. for this reason, we continue to witness the fall of other great dictators in the continent such as Muammar Gaddafi of Libya, Hussein Mubarak of Egypt, etc.
Now, we have the likes of Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Russia president, Vladimir Putin who has already been in power for 12 years. Putin’s first eight years was spent as a president while the other four were spent as prime minister. Mr. Putin vowed to strengthen Russian democracy and guarantee freedom for all as he returned to presidency, but his words echoed hollow as more than 120 protesters were arrested in Moscow during his inauguration.
Vladimir Putin juggling between the office of the prime minister and the presidency is gradually consolidating his grip on power. To conclude, the saying that, “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely” is a fact.
BY NELSON IDUT
